Editor's Note: In the year in which the author examines Han culture. To be edited, the editor will collect information, and in the future, he will write about the year of Manchurian culture and do comparative research on ethnic cultures.
The original title: "Nian" is coming, and the taste of the year is strong! Every year, we must know the "year" and what the year is
This article is published with permission from Wang Tianxiang
What exactly is "year"? Why "New Year"? Is the New Year just about pasting couplets, hanging red lights, setting off firecrackers, eating good things, wearing new clothes, and worshipping ancestors?
The last day of the waxing moon every year is called Chinese New Year's Eve, and after Chinese New Year's Eve it is the year! Therefore, Chinese since ancient times, before the arrival of the Chinese New Year's Eve at the end of the month, they have begun to purchase New Year goods and prepare for the New Year. The houses are bustling, the market malls are unprecedentedly bustling, and there is a strong New Year atmosphere everywhere.
However, many people have lived all their lives and do not know what the meaning of "year" is.
My friend Mr. Gu Jinpingming, a folklorist, gave a popular account of the year, which made me open up. It turns out that the content of "year" is so rich!
★ Is the year a monster, or is it time?
This figure is copyrighted by the Internet. Ancient beasts - year
Many people say that "Nian" is an ancient fierce beast, with long hair and hair, body like a lion, head like a bucket, a single horn on the forehead, eyes like a brass bell, mouth like a blood basin, serrated fangs, feet and claws to eat humans, fierce.
Mr. Gu Jinpingming said that he was wrong. Zhang Guanli wore it. This beast is not "Year", it is "Sunset"!
What is "year"? The year is not an ancient beast, but a unit of time, or a time sign, set by the ancients.
According to archaeological findings, the oracle bone writing of the Nianzi character is a ideographic character with an upper and lower structure - a "He" character on the top and a "human" character on the bottom. That is, people holding or carrying crops are celebrating the harvest or sacrificing and praying for the harvest to continue the harvest. It can be seen that the year is a word that indicates that human beings have entered agricultural civilization. Mr. Baidu explained: The original meaning of the year is to become a year, and the grain is mature. The "Explanation of Words" says: "Nian, Gu Shuye." "Extended to the meaning of a year's harvest, age, festival, year, year, etc., and is also a unit of time, referring to the period of about 365 and 1/4 solar days required for the Earth to orbit the sun once.
The evolution of the word Nian. This figure is copyrighted by the Internet
Therefore, "year" is a unit of time that indicates a bumper harvest in agriculture, and it is also a symbol of sacrifice to celebrate a bumper harvest and pray for another harvest in agriculture.
Therefore, the year is not a fierce beast, but a far-reaching unit of time or a symbol of sacrifice.
★ Why did the New Year first pass the "Chinese New Year's Eve"?
The last day of the New Year is Chinese New Year's Eve. To celebrate the New Year, we must first pass the Chinese New Year's Eve.
Isn't Chinese New Year's Eve also a unit of time?
Mr. Gu Jinpingming, a famous folklorist, said: "Chinese New Year's Eve" is a time marker, but "Xi" is not. "Xi" is what people often call the ancient man-eating beast.
It is said that "Xi" is indeed "long hair and hair, body like a lion, head like a bucket, forehead with a single horn, eyes like a brass bell, mouth like a basin of blood, serrated fangs, feet with claws", specializing in human eating. But the monster "Xi" is strange because it only appears on the last day of the waxing moon in a year.
According to legend, "Xi" is a fierce beast that lives in a bottomless pit in the deep mountain forest, sleeping in the cave for 364 days of the year, and only wakes up in the evening of the last day of the end of the month, and then drills out of the cave and comes to the village to harm people. Later, the fierce beast of "Xi" was removed on the last day of the Waxing Moon, so in order to commemorate this gratifying and congratulatory day, people called the last day of the Waxing Moon to get rid of the "Xi" day, called "Chinese New Year's Eve", that is, finally got rid of the "Xi" beast!
★ Why did this fierce beast of the night plague people on the last day of the waxing moon?
Why did the monster "Xi" wake up on the last day of the waxing moon and go out of the mountains to harm people?
Originally, the ancients set the last day of the waxing moon as the largest sacrifice day. On this day, people slaughter pigs and sheep, steam steamed steamy steaming steamy steaming steamed steamy steam
If you think about it, on this day, every household pays tribute, the villages and villages pay tribute, and all the delicious things in every household emit a seductive smell in the open air. The beast had been sleeping for 365 days and woke up hungry, so he ran to the human world to grab food with the aroma.
However, the amount of food of the beast was too large, and the tribute of the whole village was not enough, and it began to eat people again, and liked to eat children. Because the child's fine skin and tender meat are delicious...
Therefore, the ancients called the last day of the Waxing Moon "Xi Lai", that is, on this day, the fierce beast "Xi" will come to eat people!
★ Why wear new clothes for the New Year?
In the past, all people had to wear new clothes for the New Year, was it also for the needs of social interaction?
Mr. Gu Jinpingming said that the ancients wore new clothes for the New Year to sacrifice and worship the ancestors. In addition, according to the logic of the story of the fierce beast "Xi", wearing new clothes for the New Year is not like today's social needs, but to commemorate life. It is that people have worked hard all their lives, and they will be eaten by the beast on the last day, so they should wear new clothes to indicate the happiness and perfection of a lifetime. Of course, this is a kind of helplessness towards the beast.
In ancient times, many families were poor, and it was impossible for everyone to change into new clothes for the New Year, so they tried to dress their children with new clothes and hats as much as possible. If you really can't buy new clothes, even if you sew a hat to make a pair of shoes, or wash the old clothes and sew them completely. Some people say that the most favorite food of the beast is the child. Therefore, in the old society, new clothes should first be bought for children for the New Year.
★ Why do you want to eat a new year's meal for the New Year?
The reunion dinner is a dinner meal that the whole family sits together on the evening of the last day of the waxing moon Chinese, also known as the "Tuan Nian Dinner". That is to say, no matter who is out there, they must rush home before the last day of the waxing moon to reunite with their families, and then the whole family will gather around the table one by one to eat the most sumptuous New Year meal. If there is one less person in the family, this meal cannot be called a reunion dinner. Many families, young and old, often sit at the dinner table and wait for the wanderer to finally return. The wanderer does not return, and the reunion dinner cannot be served.
Try to see the annual Spring Festival crowd, the spectacular scene of thousands of wanderers rushing to return to their hometowns, which is the traditional performance of this kind of homecoming For the New Year and eating the New Year dinner.
Why did the ancients value this reunion dinner so much? Because the ancients felt that once the beast came and ate a relative, then the family could no longer be reunited.
Also, Chinese New Year's Eve the last reunion dinner of the year on this day, be sure to eat before sunset, not after sunset. Because at dusk in the evening, the beast is coming.
The beast likes to enter the village on time after the sun sets. Therefore, this moment is also called "sunset".
★ Why hang red lights, set off fireworks, and set off firecrackers for the New Year?
Chinese in addition to eating a good meal and wearing new clothes, the most important signs of the New Year are hanging red lights, sticking couplets, setting off fireworks, and setting off firecrackers.
Mr. Gu Jinpingming said that the popularity of these New Year's signs is still due to the sunset beast.
It is said that the custom of eating people by the beast evolved into a later stage, and each family prepared a child for the beast to eat, otherwise the whole family would be uneasy and the whole village would be uneasy. Of course, the children who were chosen to make the sunset beast's meal did not know it. He may have been immersed in the love and pity of his whole family in new clothes, hats, and good food, without any sense of sorrow and fear.
In the evening when the beast was coming, in order to send the child "on the road" and let him continue to have good things to eat and good clothes to wear after he died, they would throw all the things he liked to eat, the clothes he wore, and the toys he had played with in the campfire and burn them together.
Lighting bonfires is a common practice for people every festival. But in ancient times, families Chinese New Year's Eve and lighting a bonfire this evening was to burn the children's things. Ancient bamboo poles were everywhere, and the firewood that lit the bonfire was bamboo poles. After the bamboo pole burns, the gas in the bamboo tube expands, constantly banging and bursting, which is very loud, called firecrackers.
Beasts are afraid of fire, afraid of ringing. The man-eating beast had just woken up and entered the village, when he suddenly saw a bonfire burning outside his house, flashing red, and accompanied by a crackling sound, frightening it to never dare to enter the village again. "Sunset" lasted until midnight, but the bonfires in the villages were not extinguished, and the sound of firecrackers rose and fell. After midnight, "Xi" will die outside, so it will have to run back to the cave in the mountains hungry and sleep again.
This year, the beast did not even enter the village to eat people. People think about it and sum up, it must be the red light of the campfire that burns things and the sound of burning firecrackers that scare away the "sunset", so the custom of hanging red lights and setting off cannonballs began.
The color of the red lantern is red, enough to replace the fire, and it hangs high for the distant beasts to see. A cannon made of charcoal is called a "firecracker", and the sound of its explosion is louder and louder than the sound of its burning bamboo bursting.
As a result, the New Year has the custom of hanging red lights, setting off firecrackers, and setting off fireworks, which has been passed down to this day. As for the pair, that is the innovation of future generations on the "year symbol".
★ Why do I want to pay homage to the New Year on the first day of the first lunar month?
After Chinese New Year's Eve, a new year has begun. People greeted the morning sun of the New Year's Day, put on new clothes, put on gifts, relatives and friends walked around, celebrated each other's great difficulties and did not die, and finally in addition to the "sunset", they were no longer affected by the scourge of "eve", and looked forward to the harvest of the new year. This is why it is necessary to visit the New Year after the first day of the Chinese New Year.
As for the elderly, of course, we must be prepared to press the old money to the children who are difficult to die. Since then, there has been a new year's money at the beginning of the first month.
(About the author: Wang Tianxiang, a senior journalist and writer from Qingdao, Shandong, has lived in the snowy plains of Linhai in Northeast China for more than 50 years, published 42 monographs such as novels, written more than 200 episodes of TV series, created dozens of special TV films such as history, culture, scenery, and documentaries, published hundreds of articles in various newspapers and periodicals, and published more than 1,000 online articles. ）
Manchu Culture Network